Metal plating, for example, copper plating, onto polyimide is a prevalent industrial application, especially in industries such as the microelectronics industry. Because excellent adhesion between the metal layer and polyimide is crucial for many applications, the pretreatment of the polyimide surface becomes an important step in ensuring the required adhesion. Current polyimide pretreatment methods include forming a conductive surface for electroplating via swell-and-etch techniques or sputter deposition of a tie-coat.
Swell-and-etch techniques do not provide effective adhesion for all polyimide substrates, and, in some instances, may yield negligible adhesion. Sputter deposition of a tie-coat provides more effective adhesion than swell and etch techniques; however, sputter deposition requires a significant capital investment, and may fail to produce adequate adhesion, especially for three-dimensional objects.
As demand increases for fuser members in recording devices, such as printers and copiers, the need arises for improvements in composite materials having desirable properties and durability. Particularly, composite materials including a polyimide layer and a metal layer plated on the polyimide layer are employed with increasing frequency in fuser members. However, some such composite materials, as described above, do not exhibit sufficient adhesion between the polyimide substrate and the metal layer. Accordingly, improvements in such composite materials, fuser members incorporating these composite materials, and in the methods of making these composite materials are desired.